Thursday, January 05, 2012

Richard Cordray Hits the Ground Running

After months and months of blocking, squelching and obstructing by Congress, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is up and running. The agency’s new chief — Richard Cordray, appointed by President Obama via recess appointment — is all set to start cracking down on corporate loan sharks.

Under the wording of the Dodd-Frank financial oversight law, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has already been able to regulate banks, but unable to regulate other types of lenders until the agency had a director. And now it does. Richard Cordray told an audience:

“We are determined to deliver positive results for American consumers. We must establish clear standards of conduct so that all financial providers play by the rules. The consumer bureau will make clear that there are real consequences to breaking the law.”

Ouch! No wonder Wall Street thugs have been fighting this agency tooth and nail.

Since the CFPB is no longer limited to regulating banks only, Cordray’s first target is the shadow banking industry. This includes those ubiquitous payday lenders — there are over 70,000 of them — mortgage servicers, and the providers of those inflated booby-trapped student loans. Go get ‘em!

And that’s not all. Another thing the CFPB is able to do — now that it finally has a director — is go after the corporate-owned fox-guarding-the-henhouse mandatory arbitration system. This is how the financial industry has been keeping its customers locked out of the legal system and forced into a corporate-rigged kangaroo court which is always stacked in favor of the company. It must be nice to be able to investigate yourself and conclude that you’ve done nothing wrong.

7 Comments:

An agency feared by republicans and the financial industry has got to be a good thing for the American people because, without a doubt, the republicans and the financial industry do not put the American peoples' interests first.

Erik: That's my hope too. If Cordray has publicly prosecuted a bunch of foreclosure mills and payday lenders by the time the GOP ca get a court order invalidating his recess appointment, it'll be a PR disaster for the Republicans. Theoretically anyway.

Good point, Erik. I look at affordable health care the same way. I think it is one of the main reasons they are so desperate to get rid of Obama... because as more of the parts of his health care plan are implemented and as it gradually becomes more accepted, it will be harder for them to "repeal".

Of course it has to survive the Supreme Court ruling first, but let's say it does. A win for the GOP next November might be their best chance to repeal it for a long time.

So yes, the same thoughts about Cordray! Let's hope he can accomplish a lot in the near future, and gain some popularity... because it won't be long before the GOP is all over him.

Snave: I think that's true about the Affordable Care Act. I saw an article several months ago saying exactly that. By the time there's a chance to repeal it, these health reforms will be totally embedded and intertwined in every aspect of everyone's life. The public backlash will be overpowering if they try to repeal it.

And I hope this will be true about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as well.